Middle Holocene menus: dietary reconstruction from coprolites at the Connley Caves, Oregon, USA

Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth: Paleoethnobotany of Connley Cave 5, Oregon, USA

“…Rhode and Louderback (2007) attributed the presence of cattail seeds in hearths at Bonneville Estates to use of fluff as fire starter; however, the recovery of cattail seeds from Younger Dryas and Early Holocene coprolites at Paisley shows that dietary use should not be ruled out. Some Northern Paiute groups toast, winnow, and consume cattail seeds (Fowler 1992; Park and Fowler 1989), as did people staying at Connley Caves during the Middle and Late Holocene (McDonough 2019). In sum, archaeobotanical data from Connley Caves and other Pleistocene-aged sites indicate that amaranths, grasses, mustards, and cattail were important and perhaps even staple plant foods for WST groups living in the Great Basin region during the late Younger Dryas and earliest Holocene.…”

“…Because of preparation strategies and the scale of seed production, some of these seed taxa would have had less opportunity to be introduced and carbonized within hearths. Nevertheless, all these plants have been recovered from Holocene-aged archaeological contexts in the northern Great Basin (Connolly et al 2015; Dexter 2010; Kennedy 2018; Kennedy and Smith 2016; McDonough 2019; Prouty 2004; Puseman and Yost 2011; Sanford 1983; Stenholm 1994), and low amounts of mallow ( n = 2) and rush ( n = 1) seeds were found in undated cooking features in Paisley Cave 5. At least one of those Cave 5 features may have been an earth oven, based on the presence of charred starchy tissue and charred seeds of the lily (Liliaceae) family (Kennedy 2018).…”

Coprolite research: archaeological and paleoenvironmental potentials

“…For example, Battillo (2019) found very low levels of maize pollen in coprolites-despite maize macrofossils comprising 70% of total macrofossil weight-likely because corn husks with residual pollen are removed prior to consumption. The criteria for establishing intentional consumption of plant material from coprolites are followed in several papers in a special issue (Battillo 2019, Blong et al 2020McDonough 2019). However, as Beck et al (2019) discuss, the few studies directly testing the assumptions underpinning these criteria suggest a complex relationship between pollen consumption and quantity present in human fecal samples.…”

Late glacial through Early Holocene environments inferred using pollen from coprolites and sediments recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon

“…Archaeological investigations of caves and rock shelters occasionally yield preserved mammalian coprolites, offering opportunities to gain information about the diet and health of animals and to make inferences about past climates and environments (Bryant, 1974; Hofreiter et al, 2000; Carrión et al, 2001; Gilbert et al, 2008; Riley, 2008; Shillito et al, 2011; Wood and Wilmshurst, 2012, 2016; Beck et al, 2018, 2020; Blong et al, 2020). Coprolite studies have been an important component of Great Basin archaeological research since the early twentieth century (Loud and Harrington, 1929; Heizer, 1969; Heizer et al, 1970; Kelso, 1971; Thomas et al, 1983) and have since greatly expanded our understanding of past human behaviors and health (Jenkins et al, 2012, 2013; Dexter and Saban, 2014; Beck et al, 2018; Kennedy, 2018; McDonough, 2019; Blong et al, 2020; McDonough et al, 2022).…”

“…Traditionally, mammalian coprolite analysis from archaeological sites in North America has been used to reconstruct diet, health (Bryant and Holloway, 1983; Bryant and Reinhard, 2012; Blong et al, 2020), and human activities at a site (Gilbert et al, 2008; Jenkins et al, 2012; McDonough, 2019; Shillito et al, 2020). This study uses coprolite pollen solely as an environmental proxy to reconstruct conditions at and beyond the caves.…”